The Boston Home Moves to Electronic Health Records

Under the leadership of Cindy Walsh, Director of Clinical Services, The Boston Home has transitioned its medical record keeping system from paper to an electronic health records system (EHR).

“EHRs are, at their simplest, digital (computerized) versions of resident’s paper charts. But EHRs, when fully up and running, are so much more than that. EHRs are real-time, resident-centered records. They make information available instantly, whenever and wherever it is needed,” explained Ms. Walsh. “The records contain information about a resident’s medical history, diagnoses, medications, immunization dates, allergies, radiology images, and lab and test results. Our EHR shares current “real time” information from all providers involved in a resident’s care. Every resident’s chart has a clinical dashboard that reports current information, notifications and alerts. This improves the overall quality of care that we can provide to our residents.”

“Ninety-six percent of our residents receive Medicaid and we need to make every dollar count,” stated Marva Serotkin, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Boston Home. “Every investment we make needs to add to the quality of care and the quality of life of our residents.”

MeHI, the Massachusetts eHealth Institute at the Mass Tech Collaborative, awarded TBH a $48,000 grant to invest in innovative health information technologies. “The Boston Home is grateful for the MeHI grant award. The funding made it possible for us to purchase the EHR system,” said Fran Murphy, Chief Financial Officer.

The Boston Home chose SigmaCare. SigmaCare provides a secure cloud-based system supported by an off-site HIPAA-compliant Data Hosting Facility which provides anytime, anywhere access with an Internet browser or supported handheld device.

The Massachusetts eHealth Institute at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative is the Commonwealth’s entity for healthcare innovation, technology, and competitiveness. The Massachusetts eHealth Institute is responsible for advancing the dissemination of health information technology throughout Massachusetts, including the deployment of electronic health records systems in healthcare provider settings and connecting them through the Mass HIway, the statewide health information exchange. For more information, please visit http://mehi.masstech.org and follow @MassEHealth